“Jesus is on top of my ship. We are going to go to heaven,” says John, 5.

Yes, Jesus is the captain of our salvation. Apart from him, we are ships in a storm headed for the rocks.

A famous Spanish captain searched for the Fountain of Youth in Florida. Ponce de León never found it, but there is much folklore about where he looked. When I visited an ancient Inca site on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet, the archaeologist traveling with us claimed that Ponce de León once traveled to the site in search of the Fountain of Youth.

Laugh if you will at the quest of Ponce de León, but at least he was looking. Even if you live past 100, like my grandmother at 106, life is ever so short compared to forever. Do you think anyone living 200 years from now will even remember that you existed?

If you like conciseness, you’ll probably like what Emiliano, 9, wrote: “There is only one way to live with Jesus: believe in Him.”

Emiliano, have you been reading John 3:16 and John 5:24? Both say that the way to receive eternal life is to believe in Christ. Let’s look at the latter, where Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life,” (John 5:24).

First, notice that the one who believes in Christ “has everlasting life.” Eternal life is a present possession. Most think everlasting life is a future state. Not so. It begins at the instant of faith in Christ alone. Please note, it’s not believing in Jesus Christ plus something else. When Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, he said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30). He wasn’t kidding.

Second, the one who believes in Jesus “has passed from death into life.” For the first 17 years of my brief journey on planet Earth, I existed as a spiritual zombie. I had physical life, but I was spiritually dead. When I heard for the first time that eternal life was a gift to be received and not a reward to be earned, I believed in Christ and passed from spiritual death into the realm of eternal life. Goodbye forever to zombie land!

I said goodbye forever to zombie land (spiritual death) because the life of God that I received is “eternal life.” To say you can lose eternal life is a contradiction. If you can lose something that’s “eternal,” then it’s not eternal. God would never call something eternal if it could be lost.

“If you believe, He will always be with you. He will never leave you,” says Bert, 8.

You can do many things by making a decision. Undoing a birth is not one of them. You can no more undo your spiritual birth by denying Christ than you can undo your physical birth by denying your parents (John 3:1-18).

Think about this: The idea of losing eternal life questions God’s integrity. God always keeps his promises. Jesus promised eternal life all who believe in him as their savior.

Memorize this truth: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

Ask this question: Are you confident that you’ll live with God forever? __________________________

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Bible quotations are from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.